Just one observation in an uneventful week. This is actually a pretty cool story.

Last week I made a note that Buffalo’s running back, Jaret Patterson, ran for 300 yards and four TDs.

Turns out that was an off day.

This week he ran for more than 400 yards and scored EIGHT TDs. That ties the record for most TDs in a Division 1 game and came fairly close to the yardage record (427) as well. His total of 409 yards was the second highest in history.

(And Buffalo’s other running back ran for 97 yards and 2 TDs, which is a pretty decent game in its own right. That was the third straight game in which he’s been right around 100 yards.)

But back to Jaret Patterson for a minute. It happens that Jaret has a twin brother named James who is also on the team. James is a linebacker who is Buffalo’s best defensive player. In fact it was James who was heavily recruited, while Jaret was just part of a package deal because the brothers wanted to stay together.

How important is the rushing game in college football? This week’s recap gives you a good indication. In the games involving the top ten rushing performances, the rusher’s team won all ten. In contrast, the top ten passers won only four out of the ten games.

3 thoughts on “College pigskin, week 13

  1. Top rushing performances (based on raw numbers) correlate with wins and top passing performances correlate with losses because teams run more when they are ahead and pass more when they are behind. You have the causation backward.

    1. I drew no conclusions about causation, and I agree with you.

      Up to a point. That explains some of the big rushing games, but some others just come from the teams that just have a rushing-based offense like Buffalo. When a team with a rushing-based attack is successful at rushing, they are more likely to win. In the case of the service academies, if their rushing is successful, they win. If not, they lose, because they have nothing else to fall back on.

      In general, the rushing game is far more important in the college game than in the pros. While college and pro teams produce almost identical passing yardage per game, colleges produce about 50% more rushing yardage. About 20% of college teams gain more yards on the ground than in the air, compared to no pro teams (although the Browns and Ravens do come surprisingly close.) It’s not just desperation schools. Even some big-time programs like Wisconsin and UCLA gain more yards on the ground than in the air.

      Colleges in general run about 55% rushing plays, while pro teams run about 55% passes. The discrepancy is not just from schools that can’t attract top QBs. The vast majority of college teams run more rushing plays than passing, compared to maybe four pro teams out of 32.

      I grant in advance that the following anecdote is an exception, because the service academies almost never get a top QB and therefore rarely pass, but it’s an interesting one. Last week against Georgia Southern, Army ran one passing play in the entire game despite the fact that they were down 21-7 at halftime. Amazingly, that strategy worked. They ground out a 28-27 win. (Georgia Southern only ran 13 pass plays of their own.)

      That really makes one appreciate Roger Staubach, the Navy star who became a pro HoFer even though he had to take a five-year layoff after college in order to fulfill his military obligations – including a tour in Vietnam. It’s difficult to imagine in today’s world that a QB who is a top pro prospect would willingly give up his first five years after college, which means that the service academies are always going to struggle to find a QB who can run the modern game. (Now that I think about it, I guess the obligation must be less now than in Staubach’s day, or perhaps they are willing to make exceptions. I think David Robinson only had to serve two years before the Navy released him to play in the NBA.)

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